Foundations of Cybersecurity

This set of vocabulary flashcards is designed to help students understand key terms and concepts in the field of cybersecurity.

Cybersecurity

The practice of ensuring confidentiality, integrity, and availability of information by protecting networks, devices, people, and data from unauthorized access or criminal exploitation.

Threat Actor

Any person or group who presents a security risk.

Phishing

The use of digital communication to trick people into revealing sensitive data or deploying malicious software.

Security Posture

An organization's ability to manage its defense of critical assets and data, and react to change.

Business Continuity

An organization's ability to maintain their everyday productivity by establishing risk disaster recovery plans.

PII

Personally Identifiable Information.

SPII

Sensitive Personally Identifiable Information.

Risk Mitigation

The process of having the right procedures and rules in place to quickly reduce the impact of a risk like a breach.

Security Frameworks

Guidelines used for building plans to help mitigate risks and threats to data and privacy.

CIA Triad

A foundational model that helps inform how organizations consider risk when setting up systems and security policies, consisting of Confidentiality, Integrity, and Availability.

Asset Security

Secures digital and physical assets and involves managing the storage, maintenance, retention, and destruction of data.

Incident Response

The process of handling and managing the aftermath of a security breach or cyberattack.

Vishing

The exploitation of electronic voice communication to obtain sensitive information or to impersonate a known source.

Ransomware

A malicious attack where threat actors encrypt an organization's data and demand payment to restore access.

Network Security

The practice of protecting a computer network from intruders, whether targeted attackers or opportunistic malware.

Social Engineering

A manipulation technique that exploits human error to gain private information or access.

Encryption

The process of converting data from a readable format to an encoded format to ensure confidentiality.

Compliance

The process of adhering to internal standards and external regulations.

Playbook

A manual that provides details about operational actions, such as how to respond to cybersecurity incidents.

Audit

A review of an organization's security controls, policies, and procedures against a set of expectations.